In response, CCTV, the Chinese state television network, canceled its broadcasts of preseason games in China this week, and Chinese retailers like Alibaba removed NBA merchandise from websites.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver issued a statement Tuesday reaffirming his defense of Morey’s freedom of expression, saying that the NBA “could not operate” if it attempted to regulate what players, employees and owners said on political issues. Silver also stressed the league’s “great affinity” for China, and told reporters that he would attempt to repair relations during his visit to China this week.
But China watchers said rapping the knuckles of a popular sports league ensures that a wide swath of Americans get the message. That’s important to Beijing as it sees broad support for the Hong Kong protesters in the Western press and on social media, experts said.
China’s influence has grown alongside its market potential for Western companies.
The NBA’s global aspirations rely heavily on China, with Silver in June referring to the country and its population of 1.4 billion as an “enormous opportunity.” The NBA began hosting exhibition games in China in 2004 and officially opened a China office in 2008. Although China will not broadcast the games, the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets will play this week in Shanghai and Shenzhen, continuing a longstanding tradition of sending high-profile teams to China during the preseason.
Meanwhile, superstars such as Kobe Bryant and LeBron James have regularly made pilgrimages to promote their sneakers. Numerous NBA players, including former Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade, have signed promotional deals with Chinese sneaker companies rather than American brands. And NBA teams including the Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors have designed and worn jerseys aimed specifically at the Chinese audience.
According to league figures, 640 million Chinese viewers consumed NBA content during the 2017-18 season, and the NBA’s most recent five-year extension with Chinese online entertainment giant Tencent was reportedly worth $1.5 billion. Tencent announced that 21 million people used its service to watch the decisive game of the 2019 NBA Finals — topping the television viewership number in the United States.
Silver told reporters this week in Japan that the league had already felt “fairly dramatic consequences” from Morey’s tweet. A Chinese boycott of the NBA would do significant damage to the league.
Some industries are increasingly anticipating Chinese sensitivities and working to avoid them.
To win China’s coveted film distribution slots, Hollywood has tried to avoid content that authorities find morally or politically offensive. In some cases, this has extended to outright changes after a movie has been shot. The producers behind the reboot of “Red Dawn” earlier this decade altered the film in post-production so the villains were from North Korea instead of China.
In other instances, Hollywood has included references to Chinese genius, as in the disaster movie “2012,” in which Chinese scientists rescued civilization.
Marvel shot some of “Iron Man 3” in the country with the help of Chinese investment. New scenes were added specifically for the Chinese release. Hollywood studios often partly finance their films with Chinese investors, deepening the relationship.
China is the world’s second-largest market by box office revenue, and Hollywood has often reaped the benefits. Studio movies took in more than $2 billion in the country last year. Officially, though, only some 38 Hollywood films are allowed to play in Chinese theaters, according to the rules of the government-run China Film Group. This causes a scramble among studios to please authorities.
The U.S.-China trade war has lent these efforts a fraught quality; many big-budget films have been unable to secure slots since the conflict intensified. Disney remains the exception. The company — which has partnered with the Shanghai government on a theme park there — is still seeing many of its offerings available in the country.
For now much of Hollywood seems content to keep its head down and steer clear of the controversy that has gripped the NBA — so much so that John Penotti, the Los Angeles-based producer of “Crazy Rich Asians,” who conducts business throughout Asia, said entertainment officials on both sides of the Pacific are avoiding the subject of the Morey backlash.
“I haven’t heard a single person bring it up in conversation in the past few days,” he said. “It’s kind of amazing.”
Jeanne Whalen
Jeanne Whalen is a reporter covering business around the world. She previously reported for the Wall Street Journal from New York, London and Moscow.
Ben Golliver
Ben Golliver joined The Washington Post as the National NBA Writer in 2018. Previously, he was a senior writer at Sports Illustrated covering the NBA. An Oregon native, he lives and works in Los Angeles.
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Steven Zeitchik
Steven Zeitchik covers the business of entertainment for The Washington Post, examining the industry's trends, challenges, issues and ideas. Before joining The Post, he covered entertainment for the Los Angeles Times for eight years. He also did reporting tours for The Times in places including Ukraine, Egypt, Germany and the Bill Cosby trial.
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